Matching Treatments to Cognitive Deficits in Offenders With Substance Use Disorders

The goal of this clinical trial is to investigate the effect of two types of cognitive remediation training on real-world behavioral outcomes including substance use, institutional adjustment, and recidivism following release from prison. Each training type is designed to target one of two subtypes of antisocial criminal offenders, who are characterized by either: 1) Attention to context-based deficits, or 2) Affective cognitive control-based deficits.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does matching deficit type with targeted cognitive training improve outcomes (relative to mismatched training)? What are the functional brain mechanisms that underlie treatment change?

Participants will:

Be assigned to cognitive training that either does or does not match their deficit type.

Complete six one-hour sessions of cognitive skills training. Complete pre and post-training behavioral tasks assessing self-regulation deficits.

Complete structural MRI scans and functional MRI scans assessing cognitive control.

Complete post-treatment follow-up assessments evaluating self-regulation, adjustment, and stressful life events, substance use and recidivism.